The invention relates to a supporting and guiding arc for cast strands, in particular for cast strands with slab cross section, comprising rollerways supporting the strand on opposite sides, the rollers of which are mounted on one-piece arcuate longitudinal carriers extending over the total length of the guiding arc, wherein transverse carriers arranged in pairs opposite each other are provided along the arcuate longitudinal carriers at a distance from one another, engaging the arcuate longitudinal carriers from behind and being connected by drawing anchors.
A supporting and guiding arc of this kind is known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,046,188, 3,710,847, and 4,116,262.
Such a one-part supporting and guiding arc, compared to a guiding arc assembled of a plurality of segments arranged in series and individually mounted on the base, has the advantage that it avoids the transitions from segment to segment, which must be accurately aligned relative to one another. By using continuous one-piece arcuate longitudinal carriers, the rollers rest on predetermined curve paths without points of discontinuity.
When projecting continuous casting plants to be included in existing halls, the manipulation of the continuous casting-arc possibly may cause difficulties, since it may, for instance, be necessary to detach the inner arc from the outer arc when exchanging rollers.
The invention aims at avoiding these difficulties and has as its object to provide a supporting and guiding arc of the initially-defined kind, which, on preserving the advantages of the known supporting and guiding arcs equipped with continuous arcuate longitudinal carriers, allows for a roller exchange during which only relatively low weights and small structural units must be manipulated, as is the case with supporting and guiding arcs assembled of segments arranged in series. Thus, the advantages of guiding arcs assembled of segments arranged in series are to be combined in one structure with the advantages of guiding arcs equipped with continuous arcuate longitudinal carriers.